Free Republic

President Joe Biden has suffered his first lost in a Democratic primary, losing American Samoa's caucus Tuesday night to unknown candidate Jason Palmer. The president was defeated in the tiny U.S. territory in the South Pacific that isn't awarded Electoral College votes but can still send Democratic delegates to this summer's convention. Just 91 Democrats turned out to vote, with Palmer receiving 51 votes to Biden's 40. American Samoa has just six delegates, with Palmer expected to earn four and Biden two. Palmer is a Baltimore-based investor but has spent time on the island in recent days, his campaign said....

President Biden suffered his first loss in a Democratic primary, losing AmericanSamoa’s caucus Tuesday night to unknown candidate Jason Palmer

The incident occurred at the RM Palmer Company in West Reading. Two people are dead, 9 are missing and multiple others are injured after an explosion at a chocolate factory Friday in West Reading, Pennsylvania, police and city officials said. The explosion occurred at around 4:57 p.m. at the RM Palmer Company in West Reading, located about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

A man who attacked police officers with poles during the riot at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to more than five years in prison, matching the longest term of imprisonment so far among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions. Mark Ponder, a 56-year-old resident of Washington, D.C., said he “got caught up” in the chaos that erupted on Jan. 6, 2021, and “didn’t mean for any of this to happen.” “I wasn’t thinking that day,” Ponder told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, asking her for mercy before she sentenced him to five years and three months in prison. That...

In order to understand what the Times is up to, one needs to approach its stories as one would approach those emitted by the Soviet Union or other totalitarian regimes. Is the New York Times playing four-dimensional chess? Or is it only tic-tac-toe with a three-year-old? I ask because I cannot quite fathom the Times’ latest intervention into the January 6 miniseries, its aromatic aria bewailing the fate of Ray Epps. Who is Ray Epps? We don’t really know—not yet. In the immediate aftermath of the January 6 jamboree, he was on the Stasi’s—er, the FBI’s—list of most wanted “domestic...

Disillusionment with Woodrow Wilson changed the American Left forever. In 1916, German saboteurs destroyed Black Tom Island in New York Harbor.Click for Bettmann/Corbis pic. Today’s state-oriented liberalism, we are often told, was the inevitable extension of the pre–World War I tradition of progressivism. The progressives, led by President Woodrow Wilson, placed their faith in reason and the better nature of the American people. Expanded government would serve as an engine of popular goodwill to soften the harsh rigors of industrial capitalism. Describing the condition of his fellow intellectuals prior to World War I, Lewis Mumford exclaimed that “there was scarcely...

The raids constituted a horrific, shameful episode in American history, one of the lowest moments for liberty since King George III quartered troops in private homes. Friday, January 3, 2020 Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en) Lawrence W. Reed Lawrence W. Reed Politics History Woodrow Wilson First Amendment Communism World War I Police State Exactly a hundred years ago this morning—on January 3, 1920—Americans woke up to discover just how little their own government regarded the cherished Bill of Rights. During the night, some 4,000 of their fellow citizens were rounded up and jailed for what amounted, in...

[I begin] with the story of a series of Socialist scholars conferences that Barack Obama attended when he lived in New York City between the years 1983 and 1985. And when I finally reconstructed what had gone on at these Socialist conferences that Barack Obama attended, I truly was amazed because what I saw was a kind of map of Barack Obama’s entire subsequent political career. It was at this Socialist conferences in New York in the mid-’80s that Barack Obama encountered the groups, the strategies, and the mentors who would guide him throughout his entire political career. [T]hese Socialist...

Should Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Al. (C, 78%) be appointed attorney general in president-elect Donald Trump’s administration, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (R) will need to appoint a short-term replacement to serve in the U.S. Senate and set a date for a statewide special election to fill the seat.

Breaking News.

Things just keep getting worse for Oculus. A day after revelations that founder Palmer Luckey has allegedly been funding a pro-Trump/anti-Hillary "sh**posting" meme factory, a number of of virtual reality developers are expressing anger at, or saying they will boycott, the Facebook-owned Oculus unless Luckey resigns. "Insomniac Games condemns all forms of hate speech," Motherboard quoted the console games maker as saying. "While everyone has a right to express his or her political opinion, the behavior and sentiments reported do not reflect the values of our company. We are also confident that this behavior and sentiment does not reflect the...

A Saudi Arabian official has reportedly disclosed that the Sunni kingdom sent Syrian rebels a new batch of one of the most effective weapons for battling against the Assad regime this week. BBC correspondent Frank Gardner tweeted that a Saudi official confirmed the delivery of 500 TOW antitank missiles to the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The FSA is currently being squeezed from all directions by the Syrian military, Russian airstrikes, and competition from jihadist fighters, including ISIS. The delivery of the TOW missiles — which have also been provided by the CIA — will increase the capabilities of the FSA...

The WhiteHouse.gov petition calling for the extradition of Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who recently admitted to killing Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe, has surpassed 100,000 signatures, meaning the White House will have to respond to the petition. “We urge the Secretary Of State John Kerry and the Attorney General Loretta Lynch to fully cooperate with the Zimbabwe authorities and to extradite Walter Palmer promptly at the Zimbabwe government's request,” the petition reads.

BRASELTON, Ga. — An NFL player's ex-girlfriend is behind bars accused of attacking him and breaking his new girlfriend's arm with a bat. Police say the football pro's girlfriend tried to hide out at a Gwinnett County hotel after breaking into his house not once, but three times.

On Thursday, 11 December, Alan Gura replied to the D.C. government arguments that they should not be held in contempt in the case of Palmer v. D.C.   The reply is 24 pages of double spaced legal argument.  It is well organized and clearly argued.  As GTOGUNNER noted on the mdshooters.forum: In reality, win or lose this case, surely from my POV, it won't be do to a sucky Attorney. To give you the flavor of Alan Gura's reply, I have quoted a small selection of his points.  Here is a link to Gura's entire reply in a pdf file...

In the ongoing legal battle by Alan Gura to force the District of Columbia City Council to respect the second amendment of the Constitution, a request that the City government be held in contempt was file on Tuesday, the 18th of November, 2014.  It seems to come as a response to the city claiming that the Court lacked jurisdiction, because no request for a finding of contempt was fired. Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr gave the DC government until the 4th of December, and Gura's reply by the 11th of December.  From us.archive.org: TEXT SCHEDULING ORDER: regarding the #...

Legal Carry in D.C., for a Brief Period In July, Judge Frederick Scullin Jr.  ruled that the District of Columbia's ban on the carry of weapons outside the home for self defense was unconstitutional under the second amendment.  For a brief few days, the second amendment was respected in the District of Columbia.   The judge granted a stay until 22 October, for the  D.C. government to pass a new law that would meet constitutional requirements. The D.C. government passed a new law, one of the most restrictive in the nation, that Alan Gura, counsel for the plaintiff's, characterized...

Palmer casts Dr. Ralph Alvarado as drug dealer in negative campaign ad using spliced courtroom footage In perhaps the nastiest ad of the 2014 Kentucky electoral season, state Sen. R.J. Palmer’s campaign portrays his Republican opponent, Dr. Ralph Alvarado, essentially as a drug dealer. ... Transcript: Judge: What’s he on? Police officer: OxyContin. Judge: Where’s it from? Defendant: Dr. Ralph Alvarado… Judge: The one running for state senator? Judge: Oh my Lord. The ad then features a narrator declaring it’s “No wonder Dr. Ralph Alvarado called Kentucky’s pill mill law a ‘lousy piece of legislation.’ He’s getting rich off addiction.”...

In July of 2014, the ban on carrying guns outside the home in the District of Columbia was struck down as violating the second amendment of the Constitution.   The judge granted a stay to the District government.  In September, the District government passed emergency legislation that it claimed would meet Judge Scullin's requirements for a constitutional law.   The law contained numerous absurd restrictions.   On 2 October, Alan Gura filed a motion asking that the court block the implementation of the emergency law.  From wamu.org: In a blistering court filing, attorney Alan Gura argues that the Council's bill — which limits...

There have been rumors flying about on what Alan Gura has agreed to on a stay on the Palmer v. D.C. case.   These were fueled in part by the wording in the District's request for a stay, which originally claimed that it was unopposed.  According to Alan Gura on his blog, that is not the case: I have a better understanding of what the city will now do. The city will probably file an appeal — that’s within their right. The city would ask for a stay pending the resolution of the appeal — they can ask for that,...